At Fred Dunwoody’s, when you’re write, you’re right

Pen-monition: Anoto Group's digital-writing technologies are catching on fast with U.S. healthcare providers, according to FJD & Associates founder Fred Dunwoody, who called it.

July 20, 2017

By GREGORY ZELLER //

The writing is on the wall at FJD & Associates, and it looks like founder Fred Dunwoody was right all along.

Dunwoody, who leveraged a long-term sales career in imaging-related industries into his 2010 startup, knew that healthcare trades would eventually become a cornerstone of his bottom line. His Westbury-based tech firm distributes high-tech document and data-capture solutions for paper and tablets – the cutting edge of “digital writing” – and the entrepreneur predicted that medical professionals would be the first to recognize the inherent benefits.

Nailed it: On Thursday, FJD & Associates announced a new partnership with Westbury neighbor RXVIP Concierge Pharmacists, a pharmacist and PharmD professional network that will promote FJD’s Digital Writing C2P platform as a breakthrough care-coordination and medication-management innovation.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Dunwoody referenced a “nationwide program” – the latest in a string of healthcare-related advances bringing the CEO’s premonitions to fruition.

“More and more agencies are realizing the value this provides – a very easy, efficient mobile solution to capture documentation,” Dunwoody told Innovate LI. “And they don’t have to depend on IT budgets and IT people to implement these solutions.”

The “capture to process” technology copies and validates handwritten documentation – everything from standardized forms to scribbled notes – and digitally integrates it into outside applications, eliminating what Dunwoody called “multiple touchpoints and repetitive processes.”

The idea is to improve patient outcomes while streamlining traditionally time-consuming back-office tasks, such as insurance and government paperwork. Wielding what feels like a typical pen, professionals can work off their regular documents and have the handwritten content processed in real time, no programming required.

Anoto’s proprietary tech involves micro-fine dot patterns and miniaturized cameras. Dunwoody came across it toward the end of a decades-long career as a sales executive for major-league imaging specialists including Konica and Canon, and spun up a distribution operation focused on U.S. territories.

Fred Dunwoody: Image-conscious.

He’s long predicted that the earliest en masse adopters would be healthcare providers. True to that prognostication, RXVIP Concierge networkers – largely pharmacists, doctors of pharmacy and students – will employ the Digital Writing C2P “to achieve better patient care and outcomes,” according to FJD & Associates, including management protocols for chronic-care medication and a genetic-testing function designed to avert drug-based risks.

The space-age pen-and-tablet solution for paperless processing will allow practice groups and other professionals associated with RXVIP Concierge to collect and file patient information from anywhere – while remaining within Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines – and better assess real-time factors such as prescription dosage.

The platform also allows seamless integration of various other value-based patient services into the individual practices, at no further out-of-pocket expense to RXVIP Concierge networkers.

Noting the healthcare industry’s constant state of technological evolution, RXVIP founder Ken Sternfeld referenced a strong desire throughout his network to “deliver measurable outcomes that can be easily documented.”

“The next generation of PharmDs can now deliver our suite of VIP pharmacy services by having their profession in the palm of their hand,” Sternfeld said in a statement.

Dunwoody referenced the RXVIP Concierge alliance as a natural part of the plan – “[Sternfeld] immediately saw the value digital writing afforded his organization,” the entrepreneur said – but did note that healthcare has not been FJD & Associates’ only successful vertical.

Now in its seventh year, the Westbury startup has also made inroads into the paperwork-heavy human resources industry, according to the CEO, particularly in the field of HR onboarding.

Dunwoody noted one recent deal in which Plainview-based senior home-care provider Right at Home signed on to run its extensive employee-onboarding procedures and other document- and content-management systems through FJD & Associates’ digital platforms.

His company has other pending HR-focused deals – including one firm in negotiations to run its employee-training programs through Anoto products – and continues to pursue its primary healthcare market, Dunwoody added.